India’s largest private equity player ICICI Venture is rejigging its core management team. The PE firm is hiring Prashant Purker, former managing director (global finance) of Lehman India, as president. Mr Purker was responsible for Lehman’s operations in debt, equity and client-based risk solutions group in India. He has over 20 years of industry experience, having previously worked with ICICI Bank.
Three senior members of the core team — Sumit Chandwani, Jayanta Banerjee, KS Jangbahadur — are being redesignated as presidents and will look after specific verticals like technology, healthcare, infrastructure and MBOs.
Besides Mr Purkar, ICICI Venture is set to hire another senior member of the PE industry as president. The new team is being handpicked by Vishakha Mulye, MD & CEO of ICICI Venture, who stepped in earlier this year. Ms Mulye was travelling and could not be contacted for her comment.
These developments take place at a time when the firm is in the midst of raising money for its third fund and has already received commitment of around $200 million from local as well as overseas investors. The return of investors, better known as limited partners in industry parlance, is a reassuring sign in venture capital circles. Earlier this year, LPs were not only refusing to make fresh commitments, but were holding back the money they had earlier promised. ICICI Venture is expected to close the fund shortly.
Ms Mulye’s previous experience at ICICI could come handy under the current circumstances. Ms Mulye was group CFO of ICICI Bank in 2005-2007 where she was responsible for large-scale treasury operations, cross-border fund raising in the US and Japan, and was managing the prop book of the country’s second- biggest bank.
ICICI Venture, which came under media glare when Subhiksha — the retail firm where it was a key shareholder — ran into trouble, has seen the exit of senior officials like Sudhir Warrior, P Vaishney, Sweta Jalan and more recently, Ashish Chandok. But market circles said the firm has enough bench strength to manage the portfolio. “ICICI Venture has lost officials during the process, some professionals have been allowed to move on while others have been allocated new responsibilities,” said a source.
Besides her, the core team will now have Rajeev Bakshi (joint MD), five presidents and three directors, including Vandana Rajadhyaksha, Anand Vyas, and Sunay Mathure who have been with the firm for over a decade. Some of the steps taken previously would also help. Nearly two years ago, the firm augmented its capabilities in cross-border investments by hiring KS Jangbahadur, who was an investment banker for over 14 years and worked at JP Morgan, UBS and Credit Suisse.
Similarly, its capabilities in real estate investing were augmented through the induction of Aanandjit Sunderaj. In early 2008, the firm had hired Rajeev Bakshi, former chairman of Pepsi India and previously MD of Cadbury India.
Source: Economic Times